Gift boosts ShelterCare
A large donation will help the agency respond to an influx of need
BY KAREN MCCOWAN
The Register-Guard
Published: Feb. 3, 2010
A longtime Eugene nonprofit agency is expanding its emergency shelter and homelessness prevention services for the rest of 2010, thanks to an anonymous donor’s $200,000 gift.
The cash infusion will help ShelterCare respond to a dramatic increase in requests for assistance, executive director Susan Ban said.
ShelterCare, which turns 40 this year, provides programs and services for adults dealing with mental illnesses or brain injuries, as well as for people facing homelessness.
Such services can be invaluable, Tabitha Abbott said. The longtime local resident found herself needing such assistance for the first time a year ago, at age 37, when she left an abusive marriage.
She first went with her three young children to a Womenspace shelter, then worked with a ShelterCare case manager to find subsidized housing. She’s now preparing to enroll in classes at Lane Community College this spring with plans to study business management and real estate.
“The (homelessness prevention) program is helping me become self-sufficient,” said Abbott, whose daughter and two sons also take advantage of ShelterCare’s Children’s Program.
Her freckled face was animated as she read a book to her children at the program’s center, which features toys and games, nutritious meals — even computers and a homework club.
Her sons enjoyed the program’s summer outings to swimming pools, parks and an Em’s baseball game, she said.
Eugene estate planning attorney Ellen Adler worked with the Oregon Community Foundation to arrange the $200,000 gift on behalf of an anonymous client, said Ban.
“This donation could not have come at a better time,” Ban added. “Families are facing increased challenges during these tough economic times.”
Erin Bonner, the agency’s operations director, measures the increased demand in part by tallying calls seeking help from ShelterCare’s homelessness prevention program. The program provides temporary assistance to people in danger of eviction because they can no longer pay their rent.
“Before the economy started going downhill, we averaged 20 to 30 calls a day,” she said. “Now we get 90 to 100 calls a day.”
Because it will most likely take more than a year for the local job market to rebound, ShelterCare is asking local residents to chip in and collectively match the $200,000 anonymous gift, so the expanded services can continue through 2011, Bonner added.
“We are looking to use this as a spark to bring forth matching donations from the community,” Ban said.
The funds will be used to expand services to families in ShelterCare’s emergency shelters.
They will also expand the agency’s Children’s Program at 969 Highway 99 North.
The program also includes child care so parents can go out and seek work or new housing.
ShelterCare also announced new grants totalling $50,000 from The Oregon Community Foundation itself, from the Chambers Family Foundation, and from Trust Management LLC. The latter donation will support parenting classes at ShelterCare’s Family Housing Program.
“It is encouraging to see the community support our continued work to provide support and stability to vulnerable individuals and families,” Ban said.
The agency has a total budget of $7.7 million, Bonner said. Last year, it served 1,700 people through 11 different programs.
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